Ha, I win at Ticket to Ride Germany....oh, then again!

Anita asked for another game from our favourite series Ticket to Ride - so I grabbed a copy that we'd not played for a while, the Marklin or Germany edition. We used the basic game ie without the Passenger rules for simplicity and I put in a good lead ahead of Anita. At game end, I went to count up my tickets, and although one was failed to be completed because Anita had blocked the route from Düsseldorf, I found myself on 120 points compared to Anita on 65. It was then that Anita counted up her tickets and as she had take two Long distance tickets against my one (perfectly legal just that I didn't want the risk), her final count up put her at....121!!! Then as she had one completed the most amount of tickets (because I was blocked) she got an extra 10. And although strictly not in the rules, we counted up the longest route, which Anita won as well! I think that is called a Full House!

Game end - I have a comfortable lead over Anita
prior to counting up tickets - looks like I'll win this one!

No!! Anita first beats me by 1 point over tickets and then she wins
with most tickets complete and longest train route!

Family gaming night tonight!!

A family game night is planned for tonight what with the timely purchase of Pandemic - we thought it a good idea to play it with some other games we've not played for a while; Eketorp for starters and probably one other if we get time. Then later when the kids either run off to watch a DVD or go to bed, Anita and I will have a game of Ticket to Ride over wine and nibbles.

Second game of Ticket to Ride Marklin - Anita back on form!

This evening we had our second game of Ticket to Ride: Marklin. And this time Anita took no prisoners - we were both now cautious with our Long Route cards taking only one each (those long routes are long!!) and she collected up several extra points using the passengers. Another crushing defeat as Anita won by 50 points!

Ticket to Ride Marklin arrives - I win first game!

I got an email from Andy at Battlequest letting me know Ticket to Ride Marklin was in and we picked it up on Saturday. That means we own all of them except the extremely hard to find Switzerland map - which is used in conjunction with another Ticket to Ride anyway. Anita and I had our first game over our per-functionary glass of white wine, the TV off and the kids in bed. The map is based on Germany, but also has a few destinations marked in Austria, Switzerland, France, Holland and Denmark (Simply marked with the German names of these countries.). There also some new Train wild cards - most are normal but some are marked +4 which means they can only be used as wild cards on lines between cities which are 4 or more.

Also a major addition is the Passengers. Each player gets 3 passenger figures to put on the map whenever they want at the end of placing a line. On each city there is now 3 cardboard counters - descending in amount, for example 3, 2, 1 or in the case of Berlin 7, 6, 5. To claim the uppermost of these counters in your turn, your can forfeit your go and simply move your passenger figure through one of your routes passing over each city you have linked in turn, collecting the top most counter. Remembering other players can connect through the same cities, it is a balance when to make your move; wait for your longest route to be established or risk your opponent(s) snapping up the best passenger amounts.

It's a nice little add on and makes the game a little more strategic. The cards are great too - photodrawings of model trains are cool, although a tad confusing if you've ever relied on the image in the past for other Ticket games to tell you what card you have just picked up as they are different for the same colours now, eg orange could be a car transporter, then a passenger car etc.

In our first game I won, although Anita declared it void as she didn't understand the Passenger rules properly. :) A rematch is promised then.

Apples to Apples! And another Ticket to Ride ordered...

With £50 of Battlequestgames vouchers in hand from Christmas, we paid a visit to Andy to see any new games we could get. We spotted Apples to Apples which came highly recommended by Andy. To be honest the name of the game and the description on the back did not interest me! I know that a book shouldn't be judged by its cover, so I said I'd check it on 'Geek and come back. Reviews on Geek were very favourable too but again, we couldn't understand why. So we took a gamble and got the game. And we're glad we did!

The basic premise, at the start of the game someone is nominated the Judge. Everyone is dealt 7 red cards. Each card has an event, person, place etc on it. Then a green card is dealt to the table - it has a word on it, an adjective. For example, scary, impossible, maddening, polite etc. In a turn, the other players take a card from their hand that they think matches this green card best and place it face down in the centre of the table. These are mixed up by the judge who then turns them over one by one. The judge then chooses which they think is the best match and whoevers card that was gets a point - depending on the number of players depends on how many points you need you win.

The game is fantastically easy and simple to play, so all ages in our family can play - and it is extremely funny as some of the choices of words are extremely silly when matched. It is a game that can only be played and never described properly as the back of the box and I fail to do here - I don't think humour can ever be fully described, only experienced.

We also ordered Ticket to Ride: Marklin - a German map that uses model trains on the pictures of the cards.